Sith

The Sith are the main antagonists in the fictional universe of the Star Wars franchise. They are the antithesis and ancient enemies of the Jedi. The Sith Order is depicted as an ancient cult of warriors who draw strength from the dark side of the Force and use it to seize power by any means necessary, including terrorism and mass murder with the goal to destroy the Jedi and rule the galaxy.

The antagonistic factions in the franchise include the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Galactic Empire, the Imperial Remnant, and the First Order, all of whom originated from the Sith. Sith, known as Sith Lords, are by nature ruthless. At any point an individual can assume absolute authority amongst their kind and be granted the honorific Dark Lord of the Sith. Sith culture is based on perpetual treachery and betrayal. The fate of Sith Lords is to be killed and replaced by their own apprentices. Sith teach their apprentices to revere the dark side of the Force, to give full rein to aggressive emotions of rage and hatred, and to believe that others are expendable in the pursuit of power, thus making the Lords' demise inevitable.

Like the Jedi, the Sith use the lightsaber as their traditional weapon, a device that generates a blade-like plasma powered by a kyber crystal. In contrast to the Jedi, who use blue, green, purple, white and yellow lightsabers, the usual color for a Sith lightsaber is red, born of an unnatural corruption of the kyber crystal through the dark side's malignancy, causing it to "bleed," which affects the sound of ignition with a harsher hiss.

One thousand years before the Galactic Civil War, the Sith nearly became extinct at the Battle of Ruusan. Still, they continued to precariously exist as two Dark Lords at one time: a master and an apprentice.

The word Sith is most likely derived from the 1914 science fiction novel, The Warlord of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, in which it refers to a species of beetle. Another possible derivation is the Scottish Gaelic word sith, which refers to a type of spirit or fairy.

The word itself was first used for Star Wars in the 1974 rough cut of Star Wars with the first published use being the 1976 novelization of Star Wars as a title for the villain Darth Vader, the "Dark Lord of the Sith". Sith characters had also been portrayed as such in some Star Wars Legends works prior to the release of The Phantom Menace (the first film to identify characters as Sith on-screen), and in deleted footage from the original film.

In his novel series The Thrawn Trilogy (1991–1993), author Timothy Zahn labeled Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine as "Dark Jedi", as the meaning of the term "Sith" had not yet been defined. Subsequent Star Wars Legends media use the term "Dark Jedi" for various characters attuned to the dark side of the Force. Some of these characters (including Vader and Palpatine) would be later identified as Sith, although the term would also be applied to non-Sith characters with similar goals and practices.

The word "sith" appears natively in older English with the meaning of "journey," "experience" or "point in time" and, as such, is related to the word "send" and was commonly used until the 16th Century.